The present invention relates to dental surgery apparatus provided with means by which instruments, connected to the apparatus, can be supplied with at least three distinct fluids, for example air and water, and in addition, a physiological, medical or other similar solution.
During the course of a session of dental treatment, the practitioner will often invest the treatment area with air and/or water, though only in the preparatory stages prior to commencing any surgical operation, or when inspecting the oral cavity. During surgery proper, either the practitioner or an assistant will flood the affected area with a physiological liquid in such a way as to cleanse tissue isotonically of any accumulating debris; the liquid most widely used is a 0.9% sterile solution of sodium chloride in distilled water.
The use of a physiological solution in surgery is essential at the present time in view of the fact that the water supplied to the instrument circuits is drawn directly from the local domestic main; notwithstanding the water from a typical domestic supply may be potable, it will be neither sterile nor physiological, and given that the area to be flooded is in effect an open wound, cannot be used without the risk of infection.
Conventionally, these physiological solutions are dispensed by means of an independent auxiliary instrument, whereas the basic surgery instruments (turbine and micro drive drills, chip blower etc.) are embodied with air and water circuits only, as discernible from numerous patent specifications pertinent to the art field in question, for example U.S. Pat. No. Re. 28,390.
Observing the drawings that accompany the U.S. patent specification in question, it will be seen that there are two parallel passages running through the handpiece of each instrument and terminating at its projecting end; these passages are connected with respective supplies of air and water, and converge substantially on the point of an attachment or bit fitted to the handpiece. Whilst the illustration in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 28,390 refers only to the turbine drill, the design of the handpiece remains substantially the same for the micro and the chip blower also, at least as far as the air and water supply passages are concerned.
Given the manner in which the various instrument handpieces available to the dentist are structured, as described above, and considering the frequency with which the physiological solution is applied, the need for a chairside assistant to be constantly in attendance is readily understandable; in effect, the absence of the assistant, even if moving away but momentarily to perform another task, dictates necessarily that the dentist discard the instrument currently in use, take up the tube from which the physiological solution is dispensed so as to flood the treatment area, replace the tube, and then take up the instrument required for continuation of the treatment.
Such a situation tends to prolong the duration of surgery, thus causing unease to patients by reason of their being kept in an essentially uncomfortable posture, and produces a certain disenchantment deriving from the laboriousness of the procedure. At the same time, the speed gained by enlisting the services of an assistant can be offset by a lack of first-time accuracy, resulting in the necessity for repeated applications of the solution.
Accordingly, the object of the invention is to embody dental surgery apparatus in such a way that a physiological solution can be supplied to the instruments attached to such apparatus, accurately and without delay, at any given moment.